Looking around at the world today it is difficult for anyone to deny the fact that all is not well. In fact most would say that things are quite terrible and only seem to be getting worse day by day as our society spirals down into darkness. Seeing this most are seized with some mixture of fear and anger, which are then often directed toward others. No group is worse about this blame game, however, than Catholics who seem to want to point the finger at our culture, atheists, the education system, the government, and anyone else who does anything against the Church. We have sadly become a big group of whiners always complaining about something the mean big bad bully (of whatever variety) has done to us.

Where is the courage of the martyrs?! The millions of men and women throughout the centuries who have gone to their death rather than compromise their faith an iota, and yet we living our soft lives complain that our evil society has made it difficult to live out our faith.

But did Saint Margaret Clitherow whine and complain when Catholic Mass was outlawed in England once it had succumbed to protestantism? No, rather she made every effort to not only attend Holy Mass but provide for everything necessary so that it could be offered, including saving the lives of a number of priests. And for her trouble she was sentenced to a most gruesome death of being pressed to death with large stones.

What about the countless martyrs of the first centuries who went to their death rather than burn one tiny pinch of incense to the emperor like Saint Basil of Ancyra. Or the five Franciscan Protomartyrs who were put to death at the hand of the Muslims of northern Africa rather than simply kissing the Koran. Or the many men and women who have been and still are being thrown in to prison in China for simply owning a Rosary or attending Holy Mass offered by a priest in union with Rome. Do they complain? No, rather as good Catholics they unite their sufferings with our Lord’s and with the Sorrowful Heart of His Mother Mary.

But there is a deeper problem than simply the refusal to accept the suffering God sends us, and to be valiant in our faith. The problems in our world today are not from any of the many sources that we claim that they come from, for we forget that ultimately all the evils in the world are from bad Catholics.

It isn’t Richard Dawkins or the various leaders of the Western World who are to blame but rather Catholics, like me, who fail in their duty to do what must be done and who reject Gods will for them, even if only subtly, are what is destroying the Church and the world.

One Saint put this into perspective when asked by a French Soldiers if she feared the Prussian Army, which was bearing down upon her Convent at Nevers, Saint Bernadette said in reply: “No. I only fear bad Catholics.” and when asked if she did not fear anything else she replied simply: “No. Nothing.”

In like manner the great implementer of the glorious Council of Trent, Pope Saint Pius V, who saw the horrors of the first most virile form of protestantism, had this to say:

“All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics.”

And more recently, his great successor the great Apostle against the “synthesis of all heresies”: Modernism, Pope Saint Pius X said very much the same:

“All the strength of Satan’s reign is due to the easygoing weakness of Catholics.”

And these statements are most certainly well founded for when we consider the most terrible events in the history of the world we see in every case the failure of those who have or once had the true faith to cooperate with God’s grace.

Judas was an Apostle, spent three years with our Lord himself, and was considered one of his dear and beloved friends. We tend to forget this that Judas was not always evil and was faithful for a time and yet he rejected the teaching of our Lord’s real presence in the blessed Sacrament. This is why at the conclusion of the bread of life discourse our Lord says the following:

“Jesus answered them: Have not I chosen you twelve; and one of you is a devil? Now he meant Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon: for this same was about to betray him, whereas he was one of the twelve.” -John 6:71-72

And this was the beginning of his fall away from our Lord just as it is when we reject any one teaching of the faith we eventually lose the whole faith as Pope Leo XIII says in his Encylcical Satis Cognitum:

“He who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all Faith.”

Only then later was it that he allowed himself to be carried away with his love of money which was only the means of his fall and not the cause as so many think. This is a point made very forcefully be the late Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who felt that adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was the key to priests living out their vocations without sin or error.

Later then we would have Arius, a Catholic priest, who spread a heresy so terrible it left the Church with only around 3% of her bishops who were still orthodox and these for the most part were those like: Saint Athanasius, Saint Hilary of Poiters, and Saint Basil the Great some the greatest saints in the history of the Church. Luther too was a Catholic priest who has helped to destroy western civilization. Napoleon was a Catholic who raised himself up as a God and ravaged all of Europe. Hitler too was a Catholic, at least baptized as such, and who did the same just a little more than a century later. Even Stalin was in an Orthodox Seminary before rejecting the faith and become the most terrible mass murderer of all time. When the best become evil they are the worst.

Thus if we are living in a “culture of death” and a truly evil society led by a diabolical government then whose fault is it?

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men.” -Matthew 5:13

Catholics have lost their savour of true devotion and faith and the work of converting the world to Christ has been greatly diminished, and now we are being “trodden on by men” and instead of recognizing what has happened to us and repenting rather we complain and rail against the government that is a punishment of our own making.

It is indeed a most terrible thing for Catholics who once having the faith reject it, and we live in a nation that is filled with ex-Catholics and those who are Catholic in name only.

“For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and overcome: their latter state is become unto them worse than the former. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: The dog is returned to his vomit: and, The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” -2 Peter 2:20-22

How many Catholics today are trapped in habitual sin and return again and again to the vomit that is their sins? We complain now about the HHS contraceptive mandate being forced upon us yet where are the Catholic families of old with 6, 7, 8, 9, 10+ kids? From the polls there is an extremely disturbing number of those who call themselves Catholic while disagreeing with Church’s moral teachings. In fact in one poll 90% of those calling themselves Catholic who were Religion Teachers in Catholic schools said they disagreed with the Church’s teaching on Contraception.

What then can we do who have fallen into such a terrible state? Let us consider the following…

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he said, I will return to my house whence I came out. And when he comes, he finds it swept and garnished. Then goes he, and takes to him seven, other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, an dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” -Luke 11:24-26

In his Catena Aurea Saint Thomas Aquinas quotes that great Doctor of the Church the Benedictine Monk Saint Bede the Venerable who made this observation on the above passage from Saint Luke:

“This may also be taken to refer to certain heretics or schismatics, or even to a bad Catholic, from whom at the time of his baptism the evil spirit had gone out. And he wanders about in dry places, that is, his crafty device is to try the hearts of the faithful, which have been purged of all unstable and transient knowledge if he can plant in them any where the footsteps of his iniquity. But he says, I will return to my house whence I came out. And here we must beware lest the sin which we supposed extinguished in us, by our neglect overcome us unawares. But he finds his house swept and garnished, that is, purified by the grace of baptism from the stain of sin, yet replenished with no diligence in good works. By the seven evil spirits which he takes to himself, he signifies all the vices. And they are called more wicked, because he will have not only those vices which are opposed to the seven spiritual virtues, but also by his hypocrisy he will pretend to have the virtues themselves.”

We must then very honestly examine our lives and consider if we are truly working toward the greater glory of God and if we are becoming Saints. To this end here is a general brief guide to living a good holy Catholic life…

Particularly helpful is the questionnaire linked to that is used by the Church in the process of canonization of saints, which works as a great examination of conscience and guide for one to know if they are really doing what they ought to do to become Saints.